The Centrality of Ethics in Buddhism: Exploratory Essays

The book is organized into six major parts. The opening section, “Introduction,” presents the centrality of ethics in Buddhism, Buddhist views of human nature, purification of mind, scriptural truth-claims, cosmology, karma, and the three-world scheme. “Background to Buddhism” studies Vedic, Upaniṣadic, Hindu, and classical Indian ethical systems, including values, āśrama, varṇa, puruṣārtha, dharma, non-Vedic ethical ideas, and comparative appraisal. “Buddhism on Ethics and Karma” develops Buddhist ethics as an integrated programme of vertical and horizontal development, examines Buddhist foundations of morality, critiques Vedic and Upaniṣadic ethics, and explains the ethicization of karma, saṃsāra, rebirth, and emptiness in Madhyamaka philosophy. “Buddhism and Interculturality” studies Buddhism’s encounters with Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese culture, and postmodern thought. “Buddhism on Knowledge, Reality, and Self” explores Buddhist epistemology, constructive realism, and Buddhist critiques of Vedāntic dreamless sleep and soul theory. “Buddhism and Perspectives on Time” examines change, temporality, Buddhist and Leibnizian theories of time, the Newton–Leibniz debate, and the broader problem of time in Indian philosophy.